Rumors have been circulating ever since the addition of Sombra as to who the next new hero to the Overwatch roster would be. While Doomfist and Athena have both been heavy favorites, even since the reveal of Ana, there are even more possibilities now.
After combing through concept art, trailers, theatrical teasers and even Blizzcon background art, fans have noticed a couple of recurring models popping up consistently. The first speculated character is an omnic spider turret, which can be seen in the original Overwatch trailer and in the “Are you with us?” trailer.
It would make sense to bolster the omnic portion of the roster, as it currently sits only Zenyatta, Bastion and technically Genji make up that portion of the demographic, but it doesn’t entirely seem like the character would be much different from Bastion at first look. In reality it’s far more likely that the spider mech is simply a supplementary character to make concept art look more realistic, similar to the random soldiers spread throughout.
The more likely character, ironically also of another spider mold, is a woman operating a long legged laser mech. The terrifying looking hero – or villain more likely – can be found in both the Blizzcon background and multiple different concept art pieces (some that also feature the spider mech).
On the Twitch stream of the D.I.C.E Summit, Blizzard Vice President and Overwatch designer Jeff Kaplan said, “The spider laser beam hero is not who we think she is.” So at the end of the day nothing is exactly concrete about the whole situation on who the next hero will be.
Regardless of who the character ends up being, It speaks volumes that Blizzard not only adds content so regularly after its release, but that they manage to make another fun experience outside of the game itself. Each build up to the introduction of a new character feels like a treasure hunt, even though the information will eventually be released, it’s still exciting to work hard to find out the information earlier.